Learning Revolution Required to Advance UK University Life & Learning

ByPeter Harrington

Fifteen years after David Cameron and Nick Clegg walked into Downing street, holding hands and power, UK universities find themselves in a perpetually turbulent marketplace.

Yet between 2011 and 2021, HESA reports that undergraduate student numbers nearly doubled to 700,000. Postgraduate volumes peaked at 600,000, rising from 300,000.

Several key factors drove the international surge for student university places:
• Rapid income growth in countries like China, Nigeria and Malaysia
• Limited in-country university supply in places such as China
• UK university ability to charge more for international student places
• Tightening visa policies in the US (Trump 2016) diverting people to the UK

According to HESA, in 2011, UK higher education institutions received about £9.68 billion in tuition fees & education contracts. Ten years later and the same source reports £24.6 billion in tuition fees & education contracts.

With interest rates almost zero throughout the teens, investment companies with double yoga doctorates bent over backwards to lend voluminous sums to universities. A plethora of bigger buildings were constructed during the digital revolution era.

Hindsight is easy

Writing this piece on the eve of the 2025 autumn budget, there will be many university VCs who reflect on the last 15 years and wonder how the boom times became so painful. And why did their institution not prepare better for the sector crisis?

None of the published reports this week from trusted sources, such as Times HE or WonkHE, predict any kind of olive branch from Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Yet a reported 45% of all institutions will report a deficit this year.

Collectively backed into ‘immigration corner’, politicians will probably emigrate before altering the current student visa rules. And with so much public money being made available over the previous decade, fingers that normally fund are pointing at problematic university efficiencies, governance, exec pay, and capital spending (see buildings above).

Worries about financial risk have already led to the first ‘Super Uni’ with Greenwich and Kent tying the education knot earlier this year. The Government is signalling that it wants universities to be responsible for getting their own house in order.

It would be extremely unfair to lay the blame squarely at the gates of learning. I’ve never met anyone who read the runes and predicted the following events that began in 2016 and have conspired to seriously impact UK University education – a brand that we must not forget is held in high esteem around the world.

  • Trump America first politics
  • Brexit
  • Global pandemic
  • Inflation & rising energy costs
  • Cost of living crisis
  • Artificial Intelligence

Hypnotised by the past

However, in this whirlwind time of change universities did make mistakes. To quote the late, great educationalist, Sir Ken Robinson (TED 2010 Long Beach California), HE institutions’ bind with tradition and habitual nature means they are easily ‘Hypnotised by the past’.

For example, costly building projects were undertaken so more students could gather and sit in larger number within bigger lecture theatres – because this is the way people have learnt and been taught for centuries and why might there be change?

Like universities, over the last 15 years the world of work has changed enormously. But unlike universities, technology advances means that many companies estimate they now need 20%-50% less floorspace than pre-2019. Companies that haven’t adapted carry too high an overhead and their survival is threatened.

If the directors ran SimVenture like it was run in 2012, the company definitely would not be around now.

  • We had to develop online learning technology because our original offline solutions were insufficient to meet the demands of a changing world of learning.
  • We had to invest in online technology so product demonstrations and client meetings could be held online – as opposed to time and cost-consuming site visits.
  • We had to ask all colleagues to work from home as a single central office would become a costly white elephant.

By moving with the times and adapting to continuous challenges, SimVenture has remained as a leader in the business and entrepreneurship digital learning space.

Quality digital learning technology works

By investing over £3m+ in technology, our platforms allow people to advance their business and entrepreneurship skills and knowledge quickly. They also enjoy authentic learning individually or collaboratively wherever there is access to the internet. And a typical student license (Evolution or Validate), costs around of £60.

University students actively engaging with the online business simulation, Evolution, in a flexible university space.

And from all the feedback we receive from our university clients around the world, we know our digital learning solutions make a positive difference to the lives of thousands of students.

Yet even though we have won many awards and have a YouTube playlist dedicated to client testimonials (most of which are from universities), the general academic resistance to integrating digital technology (due to skills, degree of discomfort, lecture habit and/or apathy) remains strong.

It may be argued the digital transformation started in 2010 when Sir Ken Robinson suggested we ‘Bring on the Learning Revolution’. Universities had a wonderful opportunity to engage with learning technology in a far more profound manner. But in the main, they failed to invest properly and make concrete changes.

Instead of better learning outcomes and better organisational efficiencies, expensive building projects with quickly dating learning facilities were prioritised and are still being paid for.

A learning revolution is still required to advance university life & learning. But who is going to be brave enough to lead the way?